Posted @ 05:41 PM CST
In about 20 minutes I’m going to tune into CNN to check out the YouTube debates. You can bet I’ll be taking notes and paying attention to the questions and the responses from our democratic presidential hopefuls. I will come back to this post and do some live blogging updates for you. In the meantime I want to hear from you whether it’s through a comment on this thread OR a TrackBack from your blog!
Posted @ 06:37 PM CST
The democrats to the stage for the CNN YouTube debates in South Carolina. Here are some points that got brought up during the first part of this debate.
1. Politicians that make promises, get elected, have the power to make the change, and do nothing once they get elected.
2. Somebody asked Clinton about the word “liberal” and if she was a liberal. She went on to explain that the word “liberal” used to be taken as “for freedom” which was nice because I had not been too totally sure about the background of the word.
She then went on to talk about how she doesn’t really like to use the word “liberal” and how she prefers the word “progressive” and/or “modern progressive.”
I say: WHATEVER
3. In the beginning they did a little bit of back talking one another and started to play the field to fish for attacks. (at least that is how I looked at what I was listening to)
4. My Little Pony John Edwards talked about how he was ready to take on Washington. Now I have to tell you… he did not dodge any questions that were asked. He was probably the only one that answered the questions that were being asked candidly and directly. When the other candidates got off track with the questions and it came time for his turn.. he pretty much reminded everybody with his answer what the question was about in the first place.
5. Then there was discussion about African Americans and the notion that somehow the fact that their ancestors went through slavery should allow for slave reparations. Ok, I will admit that I have no clue what slave reparations are and I did have to Google the phrase in order to figure out what the term means. Some of the candidates were for slave reparations and others were not. John Edwards made it crystal clear he was NOT for them at all nor would he ever be for them. I guess what I want to know is when is this country going to move forward and let go of the whole slavery bit? Come on… it’s like the cock roach that won’t die even if you flush it down the toilet.
6. There was discussion about the response time when Hurricane Katrina hit and whether or not the candidates felt that the response time would have been faster if the storm had hit white affluent neighborhoods. The point was also made that the Mayor and Governor of Louisiana were just as responsible for the level of response as President Bush. All I kept thinking was that the worst part of the storm didn’t actually hit New Orleans and that the people of New Orleans went on to re-elect Mayor Ray Nagin! Now what does THAT tell you?
7. Then they discussed race and gender because Hillary is female and Obama is supposedly not black enough. Obama at that point actually gave Clinton a run for her money. Then Clinton made it clear that she was proud to be running as a woman and that she really didn’t get to pick her gender and that the fact she is running for President of the United States had nothing to do with race or gender. I thought that was a very good answer because it really shouldn’t have anything to do with those two things that some people would like to make issues out of.
At some point I could have swore I heard her say, “and when I win” — she really believes that she is going to win! I will say that she was calm, cool, and collected the entire time. She paid attention to each of her fellow running mates when they were speaking. She didn’t allow herself to become heated in the discussion like some of the other candidates to her direct right. (stage right that is)
8. They want the minimum wage to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $9.50 per hour by the year 2012. That’s five years from now! Why are they waiting for five years to go by before they raise the minimum wage? (I believe John Edwards addressed that question)
9. They all talked about gay marriage. The whole civil unions verses whether or not marriage was for gay couples. I’ve always said before that in order for a gay couple to fall within the definition of the word “marriage” you would have to change the entire definition of the word. Edwards was crystal clear that he does not support gay marriage and kudos to him for not being afraid to speak up!
10. Everybody and their mother just about wanted to know why we are not doing more in Darfur… and how empty promises are being made. People want to know when America is going to step up and help… others were wanting to know where the European Union (EAU) is on that decision and why the United Nations isn’t doing more with their peace keeping troops. More talk about how America needs to promote diplomacy with regard to that issue.
Biden certainly spoke up quite loud and made it clear that by the time diplomacy happened if it would ever happen more genocide would continue and more death would take place. All I could think of was.. ok.. what about Darfur? Don’t we need to figure out Iraq and Afghanistan first?
11. Another question was.. how in the heck are we going to pull out of Iraq right now? Obama totally dodged the questions surrounding THAT one.
There were a couple of no-names up on the stage that got huffy and puffy about how we were supposed to follow the money trail and that is how we would know what type of candidates we had running for office. Ok, so I’m thinking they are just ticked off because they can’t raise the kind of money that Clinton and Obama have been raising. The outbursts were a little over the top and I couldn’t help but think to myself, “and they are running for President… why?”
At some point after that Obama addressed the audience saying, “when I’m President of the United States.” Aren’t he and Clinton reaching a bit when they state that they are going to win the election? Who are they trying to fool? We still have to show up and vote before they can say such things.
This was about the point in the show when my kids started to cry. My three year old isn’t feeling well. I think she caught what Kinsley had last week. I had to shut the TV off and go put the kiddos in the tub. Had to try and get Fiona’s fever down. She’s sleeping comfortably right now.
I’m looking forward to what your take was on the CNN YouTube debates… I’d love to see more feedback about the rest of the show. I did get to see the very last question that ignited the love fest on stage. It was cute and it did make me laugh and I’m glad they didn’t back stab each other with daggers.
It was clear to me that the strongest people on stage were John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. I wasn’t even sure who the rest of the candidates were and it was clear that they were not given equal amount of time to answer questions. Most of the questions were directed to the four that I mentioned.
One thing is for sure… Clinton was pretty darn calm but serious when she spoke. She didn’t come across to me as if she were trying to lecture me and she didn’t have that lawyer feel to her. Obama was down to earth too. I did like those sorts of qualities tonight..
But as politicians all of them.. they are all full of a level of crapola that the rest of the country is not falling for. We don’t want lip service. We want somebody who’s going to get in there and take care of this country and the people that are in it – LEGALLY. We need to secure our borders. We need to prosecute companies that break the law. We need to actually enforce our laws. We need to get this war under control and get our troops home… we need to fix health care… we need to pay school teachers more… raise the minimum wage… I could go on and on.
Instead of me going on and on I’m hoping you will leave your thoughts as to how you think the CNN YouTube debates went and what the prospective candidates had to say. If you didn’t watch the show maybe you can talk about what it was that kept you from watching. How involved do you plan to be in this next Presidential election?
Post @ 09:22 PM CST
Here’s another excellent post via Michelle Malkin’s blog about the YouTube debate.
Here’s an excellent post thread titled Biden on Guns… from Two Babe’s and a Brain.
Hillary, no matter what nice-sounding name she wants to call herself, is a Marxist. Thats right. A communist. No fooling.
Impress us w/some examples that we can understand.